Empty books or blank books are novelty books whose title indicates that they treat some serious subject, but whose pages have been left intentionally blank. The joke is that "nothing" is the answer to whatever the title of the book asserts.
A number of such titles have been published as attempts at satire or polemic, to some commercial success. In 2017, The Guardian commented that the trend of publishing political empty books had led to "the noble art of political parody [descending] into a one-joke turn that avoids words". [1]
This list includes, in order of publication, empty books that have been published with an ISBN or have received coverage in reliable sources unrelated to the author. The books may have book design features such as front matter, a table of contents, page numbers, etc., as long as the pages are otherwise blank.
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. The New York Times Book Review has published the list weekly since October 12, 1931. In the 21st century, it has evolved into multiple lists, grouped by genre and format, including fiction and nonfiction, hardcover, paperback and electronic.
Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.
Programming Perl, best known as the Camel Book among programmers, is a book about writing programs using the Perl programming language, revised as several editions (1991–2012) to reflect major language changes since Perl version 4. Editions have been co-written by the creator of Perl, Larry Wall, along with Randal L. Schwartz, then Tom Christiansen and then Jon Orwant. Published by O'Reilly Media, the book is considered the canonical reference work for Perl programmers. With over 1,000 pages, the various editions contain complete descriptions of each Perl language version and its interpreter. Examples range from trivial code snippets to the highly complex expressions for which Perl is widely known. The camel book editions are also noted for being written in an approachable and humorous style.
Kurt B. Andersen is an American writer, the author of novels and nonfiction as well as a writer for television and the theater.
William Henry Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 6th Duke of Buccleuch and 8th Duke of Queensberry, was a Scottish Member of Parliament and peer. He was the paternal grandfather of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, as well as a maternal great-grandfather of Prince William of Gloucester and Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and a great-great-grandfather of Sarah, Duchess of York.
Jules Joseph Witcover is a retired American journalist, author, and political columnist.
Michael Wolff is an American journalist, as well as a columnist and contributor to USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, and the UK edition of GQ. He has received two National Magazine Awards, a Mirror Award, and has authored seven books, including Burn Rate (1998) about his own dot-com company, and The Man Who Owns the News (2008), a biography of Rupert Murdoch. He co-founded the news aggregation website Newser and is a former editor of Adweek.
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using print on demand technology. It may also apply to albums, pamphlets, brochures, games, video content, artwork, and zines. Web fiction is also a major medium for self-publishing.
Ryan Holiday is an American marketer, author, businessman and podcaster, notable for marketing Stoic philosophy in the form of books.
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is an American conservative author, columnist, and political commentator. She is the editor in chief of the online magazine The Federalist and a contributor for Fox News.
Elijah Daniel is an American comedian, rapper, record producer, songwriter, and author. He became popular online through his satirical social media posts. Daniel began rapping under the name Lil Phag in late 2017.
This bibliography of Donald Trump is a list of written and published works, by and about Donald Trump, the former President of the United States. Due to the sheer volume of books about Trump, the titles listed here are limited to non-fiction books about Trump or his presidency, published by notable authors and scholars. Tertiary sources, satire, and self-published books are excluded.
Reasons to Vote for Democrats: A Comprehensive Guide is a self-published satirical book by Michael J. Knowles. It comprises 266 pages, with the majority of it being blank. It was a best-selling book on Amazon.com in March 2017.
Think Big and Kick Ass: In Business and in Life is a non-fiction book by Donald Trump, then head of The Trump Organization and later President of the United States, and Bill Zanker, The Learning Annex entrepreneur, first published in hardcover in 2007 by HarperCollins. Another edition was subsequently published in paperback in 2008 under the title Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life. Trump and Zanker had prior business ventures together before writing the book; Zanker's company helped gain Trump speaking engagements around the world with large audiences.
Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich — And Why Most Don't is a non-fiction book about personal finance, co-authored by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. The book was published in hardcover format in 2011. The coauthors became familiar with each other through mutual work at The Learning Annex, and The Art of the Deal. Trump was impressed by Kiyosaki's writing success with Rich Dad Poor Dad. The coauthors then wrote Why We Want You to be Rich together in 2006, and followed it up with Midas Touch in 2011.
A History of the Palestinian People: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era is an empty book by Assaf Voll that uses blank pages to suggest that Palestinians have no history. It has continued to circulate on social media among the Israeli right-wing.
What Happened is a 2017 memoir by Hillary Clinton about her experiences as the Democratic Party's nominee and general election candidate for president of the United States in the 2016 election. Published on September 12, 2017, it is her seventh book with her publisher, Simon & Schuster.
As of 2018, several firms in the United States rank among the world's biggest publishers of books in terms of revenue: Cengage Learning, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill Education, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Wiley.
Nick Spalding is a British comedy novelist.
Martin "Marty" London is an American litigation attorney who is best known for representing former US Vice President Spiro Agnew. He was a partner at New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and has been litigation of counsel at the firm since his retirement in 2005. London has published articles in Time Magazine, the HuffPost and The New York Times.